You’re an American citizen living in Arizona. You pay thousands of dollars in taxes to the federal government and expect, in return, that the government will discharge its basic functions, including securing the borders.
Federal officials in Washington, however, make it clear they’re happy to take your money but not particularly interested in securing the borders, preferring instead to pay lip service to the notion while pandering to small but powerful open-borders constituencies. Not surprisingly, it’s estimated there are now more than 400,000 illegal immigrants in your state — some of them from countries known to be havens for terrorists.
You know many illegal immigrants. Some are your friends, good people. That’s not the point. Public services — schools and medical facilities — are burdened. State and local law enforcement and correctional facilities are swamped. The undermanned Border Patrol strives valiantly but they’re overwhelmed; agent Brian Terry is slain by members of vicious drug cartels (whose weapons were obtained with the help of your own federal government).
#more#There are swaths of your state that are no-go areas, ceded by the U.S. government to foreign drug and human smugglers. Rather than protect the nation’s sovereignty, the feds put up signs warning you against traveling in these areas. In your home state. In America.
So you support SB 1070. If the feds aren’t going to do their job, the people of Arizona will do it for them. Yet the attorney general of the United States suggests you’re a racist for supporting the bill — even though he admits he hasn’t even read it.
The Department of Justice sues your state to invalidate the bill. The Supreme Court strikes portions of the bill but upholds its central feature, allowing Arizona state and local law enforcement officials to check the legal status of individuals when there’s reasonable suspicion that they may be illegal immigrants. The very same day, however, the Obama administration issues a directive to federal authorities to decline calls from Arizona law-enforcement officials reporting illegal immigrants. And the next day the Department of Justice sets up a hotline for the “public” to report civil-rights violations by Arizona authorities trying to enforce that portion of SB 1070 upheld by the Court.
You wonder what the federal government is doing to protect your civil rights. When will DOJ set up a hotline for you? After all, what country — which constitution, did the president swear an oath to protect?
But voicing these concerns, according to your moral superiors at the New York Times and MSNBC, is manifest evidence of your racism. Elites within the Beltway agree. You’re a right-wing crank, a jingoistic redneck. Shut up and stand down. Listen to your betters — they know how to make the country work.
Don’t they?